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Spiritual Presence and Spiritual Power
Paul Tillich (1886–1965) is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. By bringing his thought together with the theology and practices of an important contemporary Christian movement, Pentecostalism, this volume provokes active, productive, critical, and creative dialogue with a broad range of theological topics. These essays stimulate robust conversation, engage on common ground regarding the work of the Holy Spirit, and offer significant insights into the universal concerns of Christian theology and Paul Tillich and his legacy.
All pre-faces to edited volumes appear to have two “faces,” two ways of pre-speaking. One introduces readers to the story the editors want to tell about how the idea for the volume was conceived. This is a story they are eager to persuade readers to own as theirs, as if to bring the readers and authors to a shared moment of inspiration that appreciates the…
Introduction: Why Is the “Correlation” between Paul Tillich and Pentecostal Theology Important, and Who Cares?
Amos Yong
The last generation has seen the explosion of pentecostal-type churches at the vanguard of the world Christian movement, at least across the global South,1 and the last twenty years or so have seen also a gradual emergence of pentecostal theology in the wider academic discussion.2 Although nurtured and deeply informed by Wesleyan Holiness roots…
1. Spiritual Power and Spiritual Presence: The Contemporary Renaissance in Pneumatology in Light of a Dialogue between Pentecostal Theology and Tillich
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen
The American Benedictine pneumatologist Fr. Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B., made a critical and formative statement in his acclaimed 1982 state-of-thecurrent- pneumatology essay titled “The Determinative Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.” In this same essay, he commends Paul Tillich for his treatment of the doctrine of the Spirit—one that this current…
2. Spirit and Nature: Pentecostal Pneumatology in Dialogue with Tillich’s Pneumatological Ontology
Wolfgang Vondey
The doctrine of the Spirit is central to both Tillich’s theology and Pentecostal experience, despite the fact that little has been written about the pneumatology of either. Tillich did not develop a systematic pneumatological focus until late in life.1 Pentecostals have just begun to formulate their pneumatological convictions as theological propositions.2 The…
3. To the Ground of Being and Beyond: Toward a Pentecostal Engagement with Ontology
Rhys Kuzmi
The ground between pentecostal theology and Paul Tillich does not, at first glance, appear to share even the same tectonic plate. Can liberal Protestant theology offer anything to the burgeoning development and dynamism of pentecostal theology? Or, put differently, can the new wine of pentecostal theology be poured into the old wineskins of theological…
4. God as Being and Trinity: Pentecostal-Tillichian Interrogations
Steven M. Studebaker
For Pentecostals accustomed to warm experiences of the Holy Spirit and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Tillich’s description of God is not particularly fetching. According to Tillich, God is “being-itself ” (ST 1:235). Expanding on this idea he says, “God as being itself is the ground of the ontological structure of being without being subject…
5. Tillich’s Picture of Jesus as the Christ: Toward a Theology of the Spirit’s Saving Presence
Terry L. Cross
Few Christian theologians have been as engaged with art as has Paul Tillich. Since his days as a chaplain in the trenches of World War I where he held onto small pictures of classical paintings so as to relieve the tension of war, Tillich found something transcendent about art.1 It is no surprise then that in an attempt to sketch a christology for the…
6. Spiritual Presence: The Role of Pneumatology in Paul Tillich’s Theology
Frank D. Macchia
The pentecostal movement accents the work of the Holy Spirit. Although there is a sharp focus on Jesus Christ as the one who saves, heals, imparts the Spirit, and is coming again, the emphasis is on the fact that he is doing all of this now as a living presence in the power of the Spirit and as the one through whom the life of the Spirit is imparted. One does…
7. Pneumatological Participation: Embodiment, Sacramentality, and the Multidimensional Unity of Life
Andreas Nordlander
The pentecostal tradition exhibits a curious tension between a distinct holistic affirmation of the material world, on the one hand, and an otherworldliness sometimes bordering on escapism, on the other. Though the factors playing into this tension are no doubt many and complex, I am going to suggest that one crucial factor is the failure of…
8. Tillich’s Sacramental Spirituality in a New Key: A Feminist Pentecostal Proposal
Lisa P. Stephenson
Frederick Parrella has suggested that in view of the focus of Tillich’s Spiritual Presence on the experience of being grasped by the Spirit—rather than intellectual assent and doctrinal formulations—Tillich’s treatment of the divine Spirit is in itself spirituality as well as theology.1 Working from this perspective…
9. Political Theology from Tillich to Pentecostalism in Africa
Nimi Wariboko
In Africa, politics is a process of power-exchange. It is akin to warfare with clear, concrete definition of friends and enemies. The political is the militant site of the agonistic transfer and control of power. The possession and deployment of power is the key to extracting and allocating…
10. What Have Pentecostals to Do with “The Religion of the Concrete Spirit”? Tillich’s Theology of Religions in Twenty-First Century Global Renewal Context
Tony Richie
Paul Tillich’s last public lecture, published posthumously, sets forth his most mature, and probably most provocative, ideas regarding Christian theology and non-Christian religions.1Herein he posits, as stated in the lecture’s title, “The Religion of the Concrete Spirit” as his highest hope for the future of Christian theology. Tillich’s attention to pneumatology…
11. The Demonic from the Protestant Era to the Pentecostal Era: An Intersection of Tillichian and Pentecostal Demonologies and Its Implications
David Bradnick
Paul Tillich’s renowned essay titled “The Demonic” played a crucial role in the resurgence of demonology in the twentieth century, and Tillich himself acknowledged the significant manner in which his theology was indebted to his understanding of the demonic.1 Likewise, pentecostal theology routinely dedicates significant attention to demonology…
12. Eschatology in the Theology of Paul Tillich and the Toronto Blessing: The Ontological and Relational Implications of Love
Peter Althouse
Pentecostal theologians seldom select Paul Tillich as a dialogue partner in their discussions of eschatology. Tillich’s eschatology is an ontological theology in which the rhythm of life passes from essence through estranged existence to essentialization in New Being (ST 3.421).1 Spiritual Presence, Kingdom of God, and Eternal Life are symbolic indicators…
13. Paul Tillich, Pentecostalism, and the Early Frankfurt School: A Critical Constellation
Pamela Holmes
Paul Tillich, early classical Pentecostals, and the Early Frankfurt School of critical theory have important insights that deserve examination in light of the economic woes of the contemporary Western world.1 Therefore, this chapter begins such an exploration by, first, situating the three conversation members before uncovering the early twentieth…
Responses
14. Socialist Spirit in Tillich, Pentecostalism, and the Neoliberal Demonic Today
Mark Lewis Taylor
The argument of this response essay is that Paul Tillich’s notion of Spirit is best interpreted as a complex, prosaic, mundane, and political dynamic of life, and that precisely in this way we best grasp how Tillich’s socialist Spirit might engage Pentecostalism in what I take as its world struggle today with the neoliberal global demonic. The above epigram is taken…
15. A Spirited Encounter: The Promise of Ecstasis and the Constraints of Supranaturalism
John J. Thatamanil
The winds of the Spirit have, as always, been blowing and will continue to blow throughout the whole of creation, but theology’s response to the same has been less than spirited until the final decades of the twentieth century and now the early part of the twenty-first. A variety of factors have played a role in this overdue course correction, but thoughtful observers would do well to list the rise of the pentecostal movement and, to…
Varnel Watson
The pentecostal movement accents the work of the Holy Spirit. Although there is a sharp focus on Jesus Christ as the one who saves, heals, imparts the Spirit, and is coming again, the emphasis is on the fact that he is doing all of this now as a living presence in the power of the Spirit and as the one through whom the life of the Spirit is imparted. Paul Tillich’s renowned essay titled “The Demonic” played a crucial role in the resurgence of demonology in the twentieth century, and Tillich himself acknowledged the significant manner in which his theology was indebted to his understanding of the demonic.
Drew Banacos
I have this book but still need to read it.
Varnel Watson
RT Michael Ellis Carter Jr. Can we Argue that Tillich’s approach of bottom up theology help spark liberal theology and ultimately our views in liberation theology? I need some critical insight William DeArteaga Jon Ruthven Nelson Banuchi David Willaim Faupel https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/chapter-v-comparison-conceptions-god-thinking-paul-tillich-and-henry-nelson?fbclid=IwAR3-lLhqtE1-JHsP2hi72ZJAs32zVi9yTBYG2mBxekji53E603JrEoB4w_8
Michael Ellis Carter Jr.
Thanks for sharing this resource I am about to check it out now, while a the library.
Varnel Watson
let me know when ready for Molttmann
Michael Ellis Carter Jr.
Troy Day hey send it/post it…
Varnel Watson
Michael Ellis Carter Jr. tagged you